Canon Pixma Pro 1 Ink and refill options.

[The Hat]

Hi @Alastair and welcome, I am glad you have sorted out your little cartridges error problem.

To start with all OEM cartridges are specific to each colour slot and you can’t physically misplace a cartridge, they only go into their respective colour position, but all compatibles will fit in any slot regardless, which will then give an error and refuse to open again as you have found out to your horror.

Regarding you Mac computer, it should report ink levels exactly the same way that your PC does.

Try printing something and open the printer Icon in the taskbar, then click on Utility’s and then on the drop down box (Cleaning) and select Ink Level Information and it will display the ink levels correctly, and while your there if you click on INK DETAILS, it will give you the inks in order that they are loaded into your machine left to right.


IT also helps to have the on screen manual loaded for help with error messages.

 

[Alastair]

Hi Hat,
Thanks for the comments. I have not swapped out any of the OEM's yet. But If I am reading you correctly, having a cart in the wrong slot would cause the lockup, so I do feel confident that my printer woes are behind me.
Regarding the status utility on the Mac, I am using OS X (10) Yosemite on a new 27" iMac retina. Screen resolution is superb but I still have a few minor niggles with the Canon Mac version of the driver for my Pro-1. The print utility just refuses to display the ink levels. Researching on the web revealed this is a know problem when using a network connection rather than a USB connection (the Pro-1 has both options). I've not looked in depth at the USB option, the print utility bug was an irritation only problem as I had the lights on the OEM carts and also access over the network from my windows laptop, However, no lights on the compatibles may make me think again.
regards ... Alastair

 

[The Hat]

@Alastair, if you wish you can continue to use your OEM cartridges indefinitely as I do by refilling them, but in your case from the compatibles you have and transfer the chip over carefully, that way you’ll still have all the bells and whistles..

Most printers don’t show the ink monitoring when used on a network simply because when others use the same printer the ink amounts left may be totally inaccurate..

 

[Alastair]

Hi Hat,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm slightly confused about moving the chip between carts. I'm assuming the compatibles are fitted with chips that fool the printer into accepting the carts as full. So I understand that in theory replacing the OEM chip with the one from the compatible will also fool the printer into believing the refilled OEM cart is a spanking new one. But can we not achieve the same result by resetting the original chip, assuming the correct resetter is available? Or just purchase the chips without the carts? If the Chinese guys can manufacture the chips then it should be simple enough to sell just the chips. Incidentally, do you have any knowledge of what the chips actually do? And is replacing them just a matter of carefully levering them off? Are they self adhesive? Or glued in place.
Thanks for the help, top man (or top hat?)

 

[The Hat]

@Alastair, let’s deal with the chips first, they are extremely easy to remove, no brute force need, just nice and easy does it and careful not to damage ant contacts, here is a link to show how to remove the chip correctly.
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-chip-removal-made-easy.5629/

It’s only a matter of removing the plastic nipple on one side of the chip to then lift and slide it from its position, the link shows a different cart but the method is the same.

You’ll need to fit a new chip when your cartridge is declared empty, then your refill the cart first, then fit the new chip and that cartridge will be accepted as a brand new one, here is a link on how to refill.

http://www.printerknowledge.com/thr...pro-1-cartridge-with-some-photos-part-1.8668/
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/revised-refill-for-pro-1-cartridge-with-photos-part-2.8670/

There are no resetter for this type of chip and it’s unlikely that there will ever be one because of the large cost of R&R so you are stuck with having to buy the chips in bunches of ten x 12 from China, as I do at present.

The chip is used to stop you from refilling the carts again and it forces you to buy new cartridges as far as I can tell on this particular model printer, as all the cartridge look so similar Canon have cleverly made them so you cant fit a cart in the wrong position, which makes the chip redundant for that scenario.

Whey you try to put a Compatible chip onto the OEM cart it wont fit, so you’ll have to use a tool (Knife) of some sort to trim or cut ONLY the sides of the cart where the chip sits because the compatible chips are slightly bigger (Fatter).

If you have carefully remover the OEM chip from where it’s seated, the new chip will sit into position with just the remaining nipple holding it on, but I use a 2mm strip of electrical tape to hold mine on, just for safety I don’t want to have to take the machine apart if the chips ever falls into the darn printer. (Belt and braces) or Blu Tack.

I do hope that @Samuel Laycock comes back with an update on his machine and how he got on with the Canon Servicing and removal of the waste ink cartridge, especially the costs ?

 

[Alastair]

Hi Hat,
I finally got around to swapping out an OEM cart with one compatible tonight. What a disaster! First, one of my set of 10 compatibles, removed after the first attempt ended in the B500 error with flashing lights and wrapped in Clingfilm, had leaked. Photo black all over the other carts in the package, and I only noticed when I pulled the first one out. Ruined one of my better work shirts too (hidden in the bottom of the laundry basket for now, but expecting some hostilities when found <frown> ).
I then swapped out the matt black OEM with a compatible. The print utility reported a full cart, so initial success!
Short lived though as the printer went into lockup (B500) as soon as I tried to print. Pulled the right hand printer panel off, rechecked the cart was the correct one, reseated and tried again. Same error. The print utility is now reporting zero for the matt black. Gave up and reinstalled the OEM. Error cleared.
So it looks like these compatibles are not compatibles (and I have 5 sets!). My next step will be refilling an OEM with ink from the compatible and swapping the chip, but gut feeling is telling me the issue is with the chip. Somehow the printer knows it is not OEM and is rejecting it. So moving the chip to the OEM cart is unlikely to solve the issue. Any thoughts?

 

[The Hat]

Hi Alastair

It sounds like a complete disaster trying to use these compatibles, first off they shouldn’t leak when out of the printer, that to me says very poor quality straight away and as for the chips there’re not much better either.

I would contact the supplier and demand a full refund from them, for which your entitled too because the products (Cartridges) are not fit for purpose, or at lest refund a fair amount of money back in compensation.

Now I know that leave you in a predicament because you can't now use your printer, but I reckon it’s time to rethink you options here, and if you need to print you’ll have to get a couple of new OEM’s or refill your current OEM carts.

The problem with disabling the ink monitoring is that you’ll be plagued with unwanted messages of pending disaster and unnecessary ink maintenance if you proceed, which of course is total bull.

The cartridges will run for quite some time on the low ink warning because there’re about 20 ml of ink still left at that point and regardless of what happens the printer will stop when a cartridge becomes fully empty, there’s no possibility of damaging the print head with this machine.

From what I can gather there seems to be quite a few sellers of these Pro 1 cartridges that are not working properly, mostly when you buy the carts they should have at least 38 ml contents of ink and the cartridge should have a label with “pigment ink” on them and a fully working one time compatible chip.
click to enlarge.

If you get cartridges that don’t do what they are intended to do then you should return them and or get a total refund, this shouldn’t be a problem if you have bought them through Alibaba.

One of the best ways I found was to just refill your OEM carts and replace the spent chip with a new replacement one that can be got from the link below. !

That way you can have total control over your inks and cartridges and you’ll not have to worry about the cursed B500 error ever again, I got 10 full sets of chips and not one of them have given any recognition problems, I am down to my last few now..

http://www.printerknowledge.com/thr...anon-pro1-pgi-29-tanks.6668/page-7#post-80320

 

[Alastair]

Hi Hat,
Quick update. Contacted the supplier in China. Sent photo evidence and screenshots of the B500 error and the leaking cart. Must admit, they replied rapidly and do seem genuinely interested in sorting this out. I have agreed to give them some slack to investigate, but I'll not let them sit on it too long and will chase again next week.
Further update when I hear anything.
regards ...Alastair

 

[Alastair]

Out of interest Hat, my printer has firmware 2.1 embedded. What does your Pro-1 have? I'm thinking Canon may have updated their firmware to block the currently known compatibles.
Gut feeling though is their strategy of (relatively) low cost printer and high cost consumables is not sustainable.(Would you by a cheap car if you could only refuel it at specific pumps at twice the free market price of fuel?). I would have no problem with buying OEM inks every time if they were half the current price. Until that happens I will support the freedom to purchase what I want from whoever has the best deal.That said, quality and reliability does have it's place, but only when balanced against price.
regards ... Alastair

 

[The Hat]

Hi Alastair, glad to hear that the supplier is been so cooperative with your complaint and are taking you seriously, when they have something positive to offer they will be back to you.

Now it’s not known whether Canon have put out any firmware upgrades to block the use of compatibles cartridges and chips, well I haven’t heard of that, have you tried to use one of the compatible chips on your OEM cartridges to see if that will work. ?

The use of 3rd party inks in the Pro 1 are not that great, because many owners that sell their prints prefer to use only OEM inks and found it not worth the hassle of re-profiling to get back to where they were when using the OEM inks.

I had large volumes of brochures to print and so only used Image Specialists Pro 9500 inks in my OEM cartridges with Chinese chips on board and never once had a chip rejected or a single leak.

I use the internal Canon Manual Colour Adjustment instead of 3rd party profiling , this can be accessed in the Control Panel, Devices and Printers, Colour/Intensity – Manual – Set button, I never intended the printer to be used with OEM inks or for Colour Photos, the CISS and large cartridge were the big attractions for me.

On the firmware side, well that’s a different story, my printer originally had firmware Volume No. 1.070 and I have no way of knowing if it was changed or upgraded because I am now not permitted to access it anymore.

I don’t reckon my firmware has been changed because I can still use the same Chinese chips that were in it when it was reset back to factory default by Canon Service Centre, I foolishly and ignorantly disconnected the internal battery !

Any good quality 3rd party inks will work in the pro 1, just as long as you’re prepared to properly refill the cartridge yourself and profile the inks to a high standard.

I reckon OEM inks are far to costly and unnecessary to use for the everyday hobbyist and 3rd party pigment inks are a good match in most ways to OEM, if gloss differential causes a problem with some papers then buy larger OEM cartridges of that specific colour or just use a different paper !